Manchester City supporters were made to wait for the highly-anticipated debut of £51 million signing Erling Haaland on Thursday morning.
Despite being named in the squad, it was clear from the start that the Norwegian was to play no part in the Blues' pre-season friendly against Club América - not spotted warming up and sporting casual wear on the bench.
Operating at almost a goal per game in the Bundesliga, the 22-year-old is expected to take Pep Guardiola's side to a new level and finally brings to a conclusion the near-two-year search for Sergio Agüero's replacement. With the wealth of attacking options around him, he's surely not going to be short on service.
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Speaking to the press after securing his signature in early May, Guardiola said: “Congratulations to the club to take an important player, a young player. We're going to help him to settle good with the team, and he'll try to help us have success. The players who come here don't come to play for me, they come to play in this league and for this club.
"It's so important the people, the way we play, the team we are, the city, where we are in the league, how we are expected to play in the Champions League the next seasons. Many things are involved."
What the Catalan says is right; City have a long-term vision when approaching potential new signings, but there is no doubt the manager will be excited at having such a lethal operator in his ranks.
One competition he will be hoping Haaland can deliver is the UEFA Champions League. It's still the one trophy that alludes the club after all these years, and so often, City have been eliminated by the barest of margins.
Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer worked with Haaland at Molde in Norway and - speaking in March 2021 - had no doubts about how successful the striker would become.
“It was just a matter of time before he scored more goals than me in the Champions League," Solskjaer said. "At the age of 20 to achieve the amount of goals he has is fantastic, there’s not many more superlatives anyone can use. Whatever I want to say to him I’ll say in Norwegian directly to him.
“I’ve never been one to look back at records and think about it. Now it’s, ‘You’re the first manager to do this to win this,’ and my focus is always on improving and getting better. Unfortunately I can’t play football anymore and Erling can only work on improving and keep on scoring.”
Looking even further back in his career, Haaland's youth coach, Alf-Ingve Berntsen was recently discussing how Guardiola could use the Norway international in his already star-studded squad.
"Most of his scoring in the first two years in Bundesliga and the Champions League were quite near goal with one touch, not off running 50 or 60 metres," he said, "If defenders try to mark him, he is smart in his movement and that will become a very important factor at City.
"Guardiola wants him to stay up top and have tap-ins and I think he will do exactly that."
It is clear from his peers that Haaland is seen worldwide as one of footballs best finishers, so all signs point to him becoming a massive success at City. There's not long till we see that on full display, and fans may see him in Sky Blue for the first time on Sunday, when Guardiola's side face Bayern Munich in their final pre-season friendly.
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